Commissioner Avramopoulos says Prespes name deal ‘is problematic’

EU Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos on Wednesday described the name deal reached between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) as “problematic,” arguing it favors the latter.

"The Prespes agreement is not balanced, and therefore it is problematic. The geographic qualifier on which all [Greek] governments agreed on is one thing, but the historic qualifier, attempted through the agreement, is another," he was quoted as saying by state-run news agency ANA-MPA.

He said ethnicity and language constitute national identity and, in the case of the Prespes accord, they “open the way for irredentist, nationalist policies."

Avramopoulos said the government should have sought to achieve a national consensus on the name dispute before making the deal.